A common occurrence with the re-use of wire hangers typically provided by dry-cleaners and similar garmet cleaning services is the difficulty to place clothing with off the shoulder, small and delicate straps on these hangers without resulting in these clothes slipping off the hanger. Many devices have been designed in an attempt to remedy this problem in a utilitarian method as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,644,521 B1; 3,866,810; 6,012,620; 5,718,362; 5,197,639; 5,056,694; 6,213,359B1; 6,126,049; 4,160,516; 4,944,436. These attachments are produced from a variety of materials from paper, rigid plastic, foam and other related resilient materials.
For Example:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,521 B1 FIG. 4, is made from a resilient material initially flat, cut into a specific pattern to provide for a left and right shoulder support connected by a center section with a central slit to allow for the hook of the hanger to penetrate the support and prevent shifting of the device, once attached. Furthermore, the attachment is loosely folded over the arms of the wire hanger with no true engagement of the left and right shoulder support. This allows for the clothing to dislodge the attachment during the positioning and removal of clothing. This device is designed to prevent creasing of the shoulder straps against the small diameter wire hanger.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,810 FIG. 3, illustrates a two-piece device which is made from a thermoformed rigid material. One piece is bedded into the complimentary piece and has an asymmetrical shape, larger at the hook-end and narrower at the terminal-end of the shoulder support. The hook-end has a perforation to allow the central hook of the hanger to penetrate the attachment. The device operates best with a multi-angled downwardly sloping shoulder support for the proper engagement of the central positioned attachment. The device is to be positioned longitudinally and laterally left and right to engage the bend of the wire at the junction of the shoulder support bar and horizontal support bar. The device, once positioned provides a significantly large surface area to prevent creasing, however, does not address the issue of lateral slippage sufficiently, resulting in retention of garment only by frictional contact. If shifting of wire hanger should occur, as would typically be observed with proper use of the hanger, the garment shoulder strap would be free to slide down the attachment. Finally, the breadth of the attachment makes it impractical for efficient storage of garments on the closet hanger rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,016 FIG. 1, is a rigid thermoplastic attachment to be applied to the upper and lower supporting wires with an internally locking mechanism and end notches to maintain the intended positioning. This device is non-resilient and provides an indent on the upper surface for shoulder strap retention. The complexity of production would make this attachment no longer affordable or reasonable for use on a disposable wire hanger.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,012,620 and 6,012,620B1 FIG. 2, represents a linear elongated single foam attachment with a slit and perforation for the wire hanger hook respectively. The attachment must be stretched over the ends of the lateral most aspects of the hanger for proper securement. Although this design is most similar and is principally designed to prevent creasing of garment shoulder area, it has inherent flaws. Its size, by design, is large and difficult to package. While stretching the attachment over the hanger there is a possibility of tearing the attachment ends, which the foam attachment would no longer maintain its intended position as foam has a tendency to return to its pre-positioned shape. This design would be heavily reliant on uniformity of hanger construction and size, whereas a shorter or longer horizontal support could render it useless or ineffective. The single unit embodiment as described, will occupy a greater space within the closet while on the closet hanger rod, ultimately reducing available space in said closet due to hanger attachment abutment. Due to the fact that the wire hanger is extremely inexpensive and quite often free, the invention is similarly inexpensive and the concern of reusability is of little concern thus should be considered disposable. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,620B1 is a flocked variant to the original patent requiring additional steps in manufacturing and consequently higher manufacturing costs in order to increase frictional retention of clothing.
As previously discussed, there are numerous varieties of wire hanger attachments of the purpose of clothing retention and crease/deformation prevention. Each design addresses one or more aspects of the aforementioned purpose, however, the complexity of use, assembly, cost of manufacture, reliability once secured to the wire hanger and affording the greatest potential to retain the clothing once positioned on the said wire hanger has not been demonstrated as of yet.
The principle design and utility is simplicity of manufacture, assemblage, and use, at the most cost effective procurement. This design addresses all of the aforementioned and will ultimately be infinitely adjustable for clothing of adult and children alike. While being fun, novel in shape and use of colors in a way to enhance the appearance of the closet.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.